Mantia and Bowe match all-time records at Speed Skating World Championships

Joey Mantia and Brittany Bowe both broke records as the United States and the Netherlands dominated day three of the Speed Skating World Championships in Heerenveen.

Mantia prevailed in the mass start for the third time at global level while fellow American Bowe claimed a hat-trick of 1000m titles, two of which have come in the Netherlands.

The home nation also enjoyed plenty of success with Marijke Groenewoud and Kai Verbij bagging gold in the mass start and 1000m respectively.

Those two podium-topping performances keep the Dutch well on top of the medal table, winning five of the ten gold honours to have been contested so far.

American Bowe got the day under way in style, stopping the clock in 1:14.128 to prevail across the kilometre, with Jutta Leerdam coming home half a second behind for silver.

Elizaveta Golubeva rounded off the top three for the Russian Skating Union, with Bowe's gold seeing her become the third women – after Anni Friesinger-Postma and Christine Nesbitt – to win the 1000m a record three times.

Attention then turned to the men's event with Verbij prevailing for his second 1000m gold, the 26-year-old winning in a time of 1:08.052.

Pavel Kulizhnikov took silver, just as he did over half the distance, while Laurent Dubreuil rounded off the top three for Canada's fifth medal of the Championships.

Records continued to tumble at Thialf with Mantia becoming the second man to win three world titles in a specific event following victory in the mass start.

The 35-year-old had won in both 2017 and 2019, with this year's victory seeing him follow in the skates of Shani Davis, who won four times across 1000m and three in 1500m races.

Others were breaking records through multiple feats but Groenewoud had the chance to celebrate her first medal at global level, winning gold in the women's mass start.

The 22-year-old only made her World Cup debut in December 2019 but can already call herself a world champion, winning ahead of Ivanie Blondin and teammate Irene Schouten, who claimed her third medal of the week.

The Championships come to a conclusion on Sunday with the men's and women's 1500m, the women's 5000m and men's 10000m all on the agenda.

Sportsbeat 2021